8 mindful June 2015
In ancient Greece, or so the stor y
goes, there was an innkeeper named
Procrustes. His slogan: No person is too
tall or too shor t for the beds at Procrustes’.
He made good on his claim by cutting off
the legs of the tall people and putting shor t
people on the rack to stretch them out.
Ever yone “fit” but there was a lot of pain
involved, and so was born the notion of a
Procrustean Bed: a norm that we try to fit
ever yone into.
Ever y era has its brand of conformity. In
the Information Age, where measurement is
rampant and media are omnipresent, a pre-
scriptive society has grown up that offers—
through every conceivable channel, exper t,
pseudo-exper t, and conver t—a barrage
of instructions for how to live each day like
Steve Austin, the Bionic Man: “better, stron-
ger, faster.” We’re told the number of steps
to take each day, the number of glasses of
water, vitamins, and supplements to take,
glasses of wine and cups of coffee to drink
or not drink, what exercises to do, what to
eat and not eat for what results, the desired
size and shape of feces, and yes, how often
and how long to meditate.
The prescriptive bug has infiltrated our
social lives as well. Friends and acquain-
tances will be happy to supply you with
free advice at any social occasion it seems.
Presuming in a social setting that you
could tell someone else how they ought to
live used to be branded as rude. Now it’s
considered “being helpful.”
It’s one thing to consult with trusted
authorities who can get to know you and
your specific needs (FitBit won’t apply if
you’re in a wheelchair or maybe the stan-
dard yoga routine will exacerbate an old
injur y). It’s another to be following blanket
prescriptions that don’t take into account
what is most interesting about human
beings: their variability.
Standards are necessary and desirable.
You need to know whether someone is
qualified to teach meditation, just as you
need to know what qualifies as mindful-
ness instruction or a mindfulness retreat.
But standards and conformity are not the
same thing. Breathing exercises might be
a better place to star t than quiet medi-
tation for people suffering from trauma.
Children benefit from moving meditation.
For some people, star ting with kindness is
more effective than star ting with focused
attention.
In the world of meditation and mind-
fulness, the danger is that a par ticular
program or regimen or set of principles
will be seen as applicable to ever yone at
all times, and taught and adver tised in
that way. Ever ything in the realm of mind
training ought to be treated as suggestions
to be considered, guidelines to be tested
and adapted, and that includes ever y thing
in this magazine. A big par t of our job is to
not become doctrinaire, prescriptive, and
proselytizing.
Because the main result of that tends
not to be people becoming healthier and
happier. Rather, the main result seems
to be people feeling perpetually inade-
quate or guilty. By contrast, if authorities,
experts, friends, coaches, and caregivers
can help us to find what fits for us, we
can feel empowered from within. We can
rely on deep inner resources rather than
depend on outside measurements and
confirmations. They do have their place,
but in the end we are the best witness to
what is going on in our own mind and body.
So many people say they’re bad med-
itators or can’t meditate. Perhaps they’re
trying to fit into a procrustean bed set for
them, rather than feeling empowered to
experience and embody the inherently
meditative quality of their own mind, which
cannot be measured, dosed, sold, or pre-
scribed. No one is exper t when it comes to
simply being who you are. ●
The Prescriptive Society
Barry Boyce,
Editor-in-Chief
barr y@mindful.org
Our must-read story this
issue: For more on fitting into
the wrong size of bed, see our
story on what it’s like to live in a
tiny house on page 50
Outside expertise has
its place, but in the end
we are the best witness
to what’s going on in our
own mind and body.
PHOTOGRAPHBYMARVINMOORE
our point of view